Local woman seeks community’s help for mass act of kindness

Joni Meyer-Crothers encourages people to do acts of kindness every day of the year – paying for the car behind you in a fast food drive thru, baking cookies for a public service worker and taping money to a gas pump.

“None of us can help everyone, but all of us can help someone,” Meyer-Crothers wrote on her website.

Done last year, the success of the project prompted Meyer-Crothers to do it again.

“We wanted to take this to the next level,” Meyer-Crothers said. “We decided, once a month, we would do something really, really big.”

On Feb. 8, Meyer-Crothers, with the help of followers of her blog, will be paying for laundry service for local community members in need. The event will take place 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at All Wash Laundromat on 1504 Broadway Street. Meyer-Crothers is aiming to complete 250 loads of laundry, including a wash and drying cycle. Wash cycles will begin at 11 and 11:45 a.m. and 12:30, 1:15 and 2 p.m. with all 50 washers running consecutively.

Meyer-Crothers said the laundry detergent, fabric softener and other supplies will be paid for as well and there will be food provided for the families as well.

The idea came from talking with local churches and community members.

“They said one of the hardest things for them is to get their laundry washed,” Meyer-Crothers said. “When you don’t have money to pay for your essentials, it makes it even harder to go to the Laundromat.

If she exceeds her goal, the money will be left at the Laundromat for people who come in after the event is over.

Meyer-Crothers’ website has been featured on “Extreme Couponing,” “Today” and “Rachael Ray Show.” The objective is to show people how to save money and give back in their community.

“With the blog, since we have so many followers, we thought [we could] show people how to give back,” Meyer-Crothers said. “To me, it’s more important to give back [and] pass the blessing along to other people.”

“I cannot even begin to express how excited we are to be taking on this adventure,” Meyer-Crothers said on her blog. “Our prayer is that God will be glorified and that many lives will be changes because of someone showing a random act of kindness to many people.”